Sunday, March 26, 2017

Friday, January 29, 2016

NBFC Weekly E-News - JAN 22, 2016

For 25 YEARS, The team of Helene Lacelle and NBFC member Peter Evanchuck have been collaborating together in life and in art - so far so good. --------- Helene Lacelle replaces art pieces at the Ottawa Art Gallery for Marvelous Realism Canada.

ARTS

NBFC MEMBER CAPTURES SCENES FROM NB WITH HIS ARTISTIC PARTNER

A Doll's House

For 25 years, the team of Helene Lacelle and NBFC member Peter
Evanchuck have been collaborating together in life and in art - so far
so good.

MARVELOUS REALISM CANADA is their most recent collaboration. At the
present time they are travelling to Ontario and Quebec showing their art
to as many others as possible and, much to their surprise sales are
allowing them to travel, eat and stay in nice warm hotels.
They use abandoned homes in NB to begin their journey to help others see inside their feel of the places they document. Then, they alter those visuals so that others may experience as much of that feel as possible.
Never give up - CANCER can be beaten as creativity overcomes all
negative thoughts. Those of us who are fortunate enough to have a
creative life, are in a wonderous position to wake up every morning with
such worthwhile stuff to accomplish. The creative artist usually just
wants to create and often cares little about jetting their art out there for others to see. After all, creative work really does allow others to see inside our mind, heart and soul.

Don't give up, always have hope and never allow things to discourage you.'Life isn't about finding oneself; life is about creating oneself' rather WILDE, don't you think?

Thursday, March 5, 2015

The HERMIT lives by the Rideau River in the woods along the other side of the path away from the river.For Almost a decade he's lived rough and tough alone and independent - never comes into town except when he's so hungry; he either chooses to starve or head out to St Joe's, The Shepherd's or the Mission for something to put into his stomach to live another few days his hermit life in the woods along the Rideau in downtown Ottawa.Although he never spoke in words, he spoke in writings. He started to leave these pencil and pen thoughts in my mailbox and sometimes I'd return those thoughts with mine for him to pick up.Then I never saw him. Days passed into other days and I never saw him so I wandered into the woods. Here I discovered his 'IGLOO' falling apart. Inside I found papers scattered with scrawls of pencils marks on some and on others writings of all sorts that revealed his feelings of life and his surroundings - this book contains some of those writings - I cal them THE HERMIT WRITINGS.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Never thought it would be such a tough year so many of my buddies, colleagues, pals have passed into the darkness of death ... so sad and me i'm going thru the old person's many ailments like KIDNEY STONES ( believe me they are painful stones ), fractured shoulders, the aches and pains of an active youth .... active middle age - something we all go thru some earlier than others ... but soon we'll be going on another book signing tour, now we're on an Ottawa art thing with our mail art gallery, GOOP gallery - presenting it to the kids since it's such a fun thing to participate in this worldwide art/creative event...

I hear the ROLLING STONES are gonna tour once again this time doing the WHEELchairBOOGIE

Sunday, March 9, 2014

For years perhaps decades, GARY has lived beside the Rideau River, deep in the woods which the NCC calls 'the Rideau Green space'. GARY is not his real name 'cause since he seldom speaks, he never told me his real name. I used to see him pass in front of my home on Hurdman Road in Ottawa almost daily during reasonable weather. He was heading to the mission, St Joes or The Shepherds of Good Hope to get a hot meal and perhaps clean clothes or something to take back to his home-in-the-woods.

His home was made of tangled and intertwining sticks, leaves and bits and pieces of things all covered with blue and green tarps. In the winter i'd cover over with snow. What he called Nature's insulation. The snow not only insulated his home from drafts but also made it resemble an IGLOO

So i'd ask GARY how his home-sweet IGLOO was doing. He'd look at me and nod usually his head moving up and down to respond positively sometime though it'd move sideways indicating that things were not going well. He never wanted help; he just wanted to let me know.

I gave him hot soup or coffee or tea in styrofoam containers all thru the winter every time i'd see him. At times i'd locate his IGLOO and leave these items outside his home covered to keep them as warm as possible.

I was a long time after first meeting him that i discovered a piece of brown paper in my mail box and on it was written a thought poem ... i figured it was he who left it since i knew of no one else who'd make such a gift in such a way.

So that began our correspondence, our communication - not verbal but thru written thoughts/poems about things that concerned us....THE POETRY OF HUNGER came about because i was worried about GARY. He was no longer slowly meandering past my home, he was invisible or gone or dead. I went into the woods, found his IGLOO and noticed it had not been well maintained as usual. I called but no answer. I returned several times over the next week until finally i decided to enter his domain ... it was neat but i could see that animals perhaps racoons or squirrels had taken parts of it over.

In a corner, a squirrel had made a nest of these scraps of brown paper like the pieces that he left in my mail box. I rescued them because some contained writings and some contained thoughts and some contained poetry ... this is how THE POETRY OF HUNGER came about ...

Friday, February 28, 2014

Well as all very small publishing empires can attest to life may not always be a feather. Well as a mini pubEMPIRE working from a mini outfit with balls and boldness, like many others i'm sure, bookshandmade.com gets printer or publishing problems. With the GD ROBERTS book of HUMAN ANIMAL stories we had lots. Partially from the HP printer partially from the word program on the iMAC - too much learning too too much for weary minds.

Bought a while back a very fast duplex printer from HP hooked up extended ink carts and away we went publishing hundreds of books over several years more or less successfully - put it on several sites and things went ok ( one doesn't make any big or sometime any bucks at all from this type of venture ) then the boom lowered and the last few months it started - no blue or very little blue..

Tried several means to get it going again but the printheads are probably plugged on the blue and regardless of how many times i clean them it's remained very weak and after a few pages peter's out to purple....

so off to Staples bought a new version of the printer, waiting for the ext-ink carts and soon all will be well again for a few years and that's GOOD

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Been working away on the ROBERTS' book selecting a few of his animal stories that will best represent his huge outpouring of such content. Few Cdn writers can equal his vast contribution to Canada's literary history. This book called HUMAN ANIMALS focussed on his animal stories. He and Ernest Thompson SETON originated stories that treat animals with brains and feelings not unlike ours. Since Roberts was raised in the vast, wild Tantramar marsh of N.B. he aquired a studied and deep knowledge of animal life which he drew upon to write his stories which became enormously popular during his lifetime. As a boy i read most of these stories and many linger in some memory cells so to return to them was a pleasure ... i had forgotten how well written they were, how philosophic and honest they were. Roberts sees nature as it is rather than as many armchair humans imagine it to be.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

spent a lotta hours yesterday when i tried to get my HP 8000 duplex printer to duplex on me Mac word project tried everything and just had to give up after a few hours 'cause i'm not the only one on line many are having same problem so decided to put my design/writing on Sir Charles GD ROBERTS book back to my Toshiba W7 and without any problems ran off the first 'hard copy' of the draft version of HUMAN ANIMALS (title of book on Roberts' stories ) on cheap paper to get a sense of my design look and not really all that satisfied with it ... decided to design a 8.5x11 landscape format for the book using HELENE's odd and amazing ( no i will not use the word 'awesome' sooo totally a fake word and brutally used flippantly like 'love' ) illustrations making Roberts animal reality stories into a 'alice in wonderland' type of 'look'

Thursday, January 9, 2014

HELENE LACELLE's illustration of the crying oxen creates a totally modern 'look' to the hundred year old animal stories of GD ROBERTS, a NB born and raised writer who 'created' the animal story wherein he treates so called 'wild beasts' as humans i.e. they think and feel and react as we human animals do - along with E.T. SETON he was the first in the world to do so and as a result became world famous for these stories - his first collection of anmal stories sold 80,000 copies in N.A. which considering it was about 100 years ago this was fantastic.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

an example of the amazing illustrations that will embellish and modernize ROBERTS' well-written and introspective animal stories that treat animals like we human animals as equals ... almost - certainly he gives them minds, imaginations, thoughts, feelings and importance. Whereas LACELLE's images put them into an Alice in Wonderland' imaginative area of modernity; thus, combining the old and the new... a wonderous thing as Martha might say?

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

This project was started last year when we travelled documenting his birthplace in Douglas NB to the Tantramar Marsh where his father a clergyman home schooled him and where he infused his life with nature in the surrounding marshlands and his mind with his classical studies - both created in him an amazing sense of how human animals are how spiritual nature can be to Fredericton where he lived on George Street while attending UNB and where his poetic nature and determination would soon make him the 'Father of Canadian Literature' but his animal stories placed him in such popularity among his audience that he became known as the creator of the 'human animal' - animals that are not barbaric but sensitive surviving and thinking like we humans and striving to understand the world in which they lived ...

Friday, December 27, 2013

so on location working away on the ROBERTS project which intends to become a documentary and a book - the book which is comprised of selections from his 'animal stories' with illustrations byHELENE LACELLEis well on the way and soon to be published - ROBERTS is known now only as 'the father of CDN poetry' but also the author who created the 'animal story' where the animals have human-like characteristics - they think, feel and act often like we do... they are not dumb creatures or at least no dumber than we are.. He was born inDouglas, NBand raised inWestcock, NBwhere his father was rector of St Mary's church located in the heart of the famousTantramar Marsh. It's from his early days living in and around this marsh that Roberts picked up his love and understanding of nature.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Not only are we 'bookmakers' but for the past seven years, my partner Peter Evanchuck and I have been
hosting/producing a very popular craft show in Sandy Hill, called the
ONE & ONLY. Peter prepares a FREE ALL-DAY Buffet for 1000 people
while I do the rest. So on Nov.17, with the support of ACTION SANDY HILL
and lots of volunteers from ASH, the show was once more a huge success. (For one
thing, a lot of Ottawa U students got to fill their tummies )!!!

Check out our ONE&ONLY blog and see what you missed ! And don't forget to click on the 2013 PHOTO tab!

Monday, October 21, 2013

For writer Peter Evanchuck, next stop on his search of Sir Charles GD Roberts is Westcock, NB. where he spent the first 12 years of his life. St Anne's Anglican Church, the oldest Anglican Church in Canada built in 1817, where Charles' father was rector. Peter in the Tantramar Marshes in Sackville, New Brunswick.

TANTRAMAR is from the french TINTAMARRE which means ( to the uniligual
like me ) - which means 'racket' - the noise of the birds that used to
settle here on their way south back then thousands ... grass to the
front of me, grass to the back of me to the right of me grass to the
left of me but i strode on and on and got wet feet ... very marshy
martha ...

ROBERT's spent his formative years here gathering
animals stories, feeling the poetic textures/spirit of the marshlands
and woods ... very unique place - his father an Anglican Pastor home
schooled Roberts in Greek, Latin, math, sciences and literature -
voracious reader Robert's was .... his father's basic phiiosophy was
'figure it out for urself' which GD did ... Not only THE FATHER OF CDN
POETRY but also THE CREATOR OF THE ANIMAL STORY. HIS FIRST BOOK sold
overe 80,000 copies !!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

ROB showed up at CMPA (Canadian Media Production Association) AWARDS gave him T shirts, postcards, posters and
30 books to promote the docs and for him to sell and make moola... he
was drunk saddened by LARROW's death but all cleaned up and looking
great .. we downed a few free beers ... ahhhh me dear movie buddies

Friday, July 5, 2013

Monday, June 10, 2013

In
making docs, I do not believe in wandering into a scene/story/subject
without having gone through it myself for a reasonably long period of
time; otherwise, one can be fooled into making something 'not real'. An
example of that is my recent project, now 'in the can' called THE POETRY OF PAYNE which traces the life of Robert Payne
over a period of a couple of winters. I've known ROB for over a decade
and have had a long term friendship with him. He's been an actor in my
previous fiction films as well as in my theatre pieces. In other words,
I've known him through thick and thin, ups and downs so he can't
pretend some things that he's not - for all of us who really have
experienced our subject, the truth is not only 'out there' but 'in
there' i.e. in the doc.

Another
problem when making a doc on a homeless person; how do you find him or
her? Well I’ve managed and volunteered in various soup kitchens in
Toronto so know the scene and the people in that scene. This enables me
to wander through it asking the right questions to find ROB. Each time I
travel to Toronto to shoot I have to 'search him out' since he does
have regular digs called 'the cocoon' a blued tarped 'home sweet' in an
alley south of Queen West but he sleeps/rests at very irregular times
so I search him out knowing the places he eats and rests which usually
proves fruitful but sometimes it takes a day or so to connect with him.

This
type of doc also requires the filmmaker to camp out to do what they
now call 'urban camping' so to 'get the shot' one wanders through the
night and day searching not only for the subject but also for the shot
.... one becomes homeless; albeit for a short period of time a few days
or a week rather than the 4 years that ROB"s been on the street.

If
you want to get old fast go on the streets one year equals ten... ok
I'm off to find ROB; he didn't show up where he said he was going to
be....

Saturday, May 25, 2013

What a perfect day for a street party in Chinatown. Lots of happy
people with maps in hand seeking their next stop, a hair salon, a
Vietnamese subshop, a restaurant or even a foodmarket, the art was
everywhere.
Here are some of the highlights - there is so much
more to see - so get on your bike and come on down to Chinatown. Big
thank you to Don and his dedicated volunteers! Show runs until June 18!

Helene Lacelle with art at Kowloons Market in Chinatown, Somerset at Arthur.

One-of-a-kind Ottawa arts festival Chinatown Remixed launches its fifth annual outdoor street celebration from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 18. Taking place along Somerset Street West between Bay and Preston
streets, the 2013 festival includes visual and performance art, live
music, workshops, and food from local vendors and restaurant owners
including Kichesippi Beer Co., ZenKitchen, Kowloon Market, Aline’s Hair Salon, The Daily Grind Café, Raw Sugar Café, and others. The month-long festival runs until June 18, and a special vernissage day after-party will be held at the Shanghai Restaurant from 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on May 18.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The Idle No More movement is about Indigenous rights, the
immediacy of social media and sharing “a vision of bringing together all
people to ensure we create ways of protecting Mother Earth, her lands,
waters and people,” (From the INM Web site).
At Gallery 101, we have been greatly inspired and moved by the Idle No More
movement. Artist run centres began because artists needed spaces where
they could question the status quo artistically, politically, socially,
and culturally. 30 years later, we must ask ourselves have we become
another in a long line of artistic institutions? How can we become more
accessible and vibrant? One answer from Gallery 101 is the “flash mob
art show”, Create This Revolution.
Eighteen artists have been selected by our jury panel: Howard Adler; Jaime Koebel, Laura Margita and Heather Wiggs.

artist statement: Helene Lacelle

Since
the ban of sale and use of cosmetic pesticides came into effect in
Ottawa in 2009, the number of migratory songbirds returning to the area
has gone into sharp incline.

Adored
for their golden color, graceful flight and enchanting song, the
Goldfinch has returned to my backyard and in my heart. Right-on Ottawa!